Features is the addendum section for the Whittle Study Bible. Each section is explained below. As this site grows the features page will too. Interested? Click a link. Parsha Readings | Bible Basics | Hebrew | Resources
Parsha Readings
Feature Section 1: Parsha Readings: Jews study the Torah of Moses and selected portions of the prophets every year. This page is the current reading schedule with links to the Torah portions. It also contains links for customized Torah reading plans and much more. [Click the image above.]
Feature Section 2: Bible Basic: Originally, I created this page because I had questions. It acted as a centralized location. Later, I revised them. I wish I had kept my original questions. Do you have questions? Let me know and let’s see if we can get them answered. [ Click the image above.]
Feature Section 3: Hebrew: I transitioned from the Christian church because of Hebrew. As I began to study and share, I was asked (told) to stop or leave. I choose to leave. In my personal learning, I could not find a very basic or simple way to learn the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. So, I created this one. It was a way for me to review what I learned and share it with others. There are videos and an easy to learn method on this page. [ Click the image above.]
Feature Section 4: Resources: There are always resources. This page contains various (mostly) free online resources. Both Jewish and Christian links are available. I have placed paid resources throughout the website.
Hebrew vowels are small markings, dots and dashes, above, below, and inside a letter. These markings provide a sound. There are only five vowel sounds – “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”. The five basic sounds will do most of the heavy lifting for you as there are additional sounds that are considered more advance.
Below, I have created a chart that contains the Hebrew Vowels.
Hebrew Vowels Chart
The chart shows long, short and reduced sounds. For all intents and purposes, they can be enunciated the same.
Like the letters, the name of the vowels provides the sound of the vowel. Below, I am providing some recordings of how the vowels sounds. The voice is a native Hebrew speaker.
Hebrew Vowels Sounds
“A” Vowel Sound
“E” Vowel Sound
“I” Vowel Sound
“O” Vowel Sound
“U” Vowel Sound
Coming soon are some practice charts. Each letter of the Alef-bet can be pronounced with each vowel. The charts below will provide the constant and vowel. Just practice, Remember, Aleph is silent and give you the sound of the vowel only.
Parsha (Parshoit, plural form) are the weekly reading from the Torah – the five book of Moses. The Torah of Moses is read over the course of each Jewish Year and also has a reading the prophets called Haftarah.
More Info about the Parsha Readings
Parsha is a weekly Torah portion (Hebrew: פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ Parashat ha-Shavua), popularly just parashah (or parshah /pɑːrʃə/ or parsha) and also known as a Sidra (or Sedra /sɛdrə/). This is a section of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) used in Jewish liturgy during the weekly services. It is chanted publicly by a designated reader (ba’al koreh) in Jewish prayer services, starting with a partial reading on the afternoon of Shabbat (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath), again during the Monday and Thursday morning services, and ending with a full reading during the following Shabbat morning services. The weekly reading is pre-empted by a special reading on major religious holidays. The Saturday morning and holiday readings are followed by a reading (Haftarah) from the Book of Prophets (Nevi’im). There are 54 weekly parashiyot (plural) or parshahs (anglicized pluralization) in Judaism, and the full cycle is read over the course of one Jewish year. 1
Sometimes, in the weekly Torah readings we have to read two parashot to keep the cycle on course. This occurs every year. This happens due to the Lunar cycle. Below I have listed the seven reading doubles.
Hebrew is the only language I have desired to learn. Once, I decided to learn it, I quickly realized there is a lot of information on Classic (Biblical) Hebrew. So, I decided to create this simple post with the most basic of ideas about Hebrew.
Here are a few facts about this wonderful language.
Hebrew is written from right to left.
The Hebrew alphabet is called “Aleph-Bet” as these are the first two letters.
The Aleph-bet consists of 22 letters, all of which are consonants. Vowels are dots and dashes added above, inside, and below the consonants. See the next lesson.
Hebrew is a block style language. Therefore, it really does not have capital or lowercase letters.
Hebrew has various pronunciations.
Five letters have a different form when they appear at the end of words. These are called Sofit (So-Feet) letters.
Hebrew is a language that you can read without understanding the meaning of words.
Hebrew is a concrete language which means that is a langage that always appeals to the five-senses – taste, touch, seeing, hearing, and smelling – as such it does not have abstract ideas.
Hebrew contains only about 4,000 words this makes it easy to learn. Don’t get it twisted, Hebrew is extremely rich in meaning.
Each Hebrew letter has a name in both English and Hebrew. Each letter represents a number. However here we will not discuss all of that information.
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This is the go to Hebrew Grammar for my Hebrew teacher – Yoel HaLevi. He uses this as his base text. As a Jewish Scholar he has some very cool insights. You can reach out to him at his website – Hebrew in Israel. Let him know that I sent you.
As you would expect with any ancient language it has different eras (ancient, classical, and modern). Each of these eras have their nuances on the language.
This post is a pool of information that I have gathered from the online videos courses, webiste such as hebrew4christians.com, and offline sources like school teachers, and books too.
It is my sincere hope that this very basic lesson will provide you an easy, clear-cut introduction to Biblical Hebrew.
Enjoy.
Hebrew Letters – Aleph to Kap
In this video Dr. Anne Davis teaches the first half of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet in less than sixteen minutes! She groups the letters together and calls these groups “clusters”. I have listed the letters below the video in the “clusters” she uses.
Make sure you take the time to look at the writing below the video. There is additional information that may assist you in learning the Aleph-Bet.
Cluster #1
Dr. Davis’ first cluster contains a total of 4 Hebrew letters. These letters are aleph, bet, gimel, & dalet.
Aleph —א
Alpeh is first letter of the Aleph-Bet. The name of this letter is pronounced as “Ah-lep”. Aleph is silent.
Bet — בּ / Vet — ב
Bet is the second letter. It rhymes with “mate”. Bet says “b” as in “boy”. The “dot in the middle” is called a dagesh.
Vet says “v” as in “vine”. Notice the dagesh mark is not in the vet.
Gimel — ג
Gimel is the third letter and it is pronounced as “geeh-mel”. It sounds like the “g” in “girl”.
NOTE: I seen it spelled two ways. Dr. Davis spells it here G-I-M-E-L and I’ve seen it spelled with an extra “m” as G-I-M-M-E-L.
Dalet — ר
The fourth letter is dalet. It is pronounced as “dah-let”. It sounds like “d” as in “door”.
Cluster # 2
Dr. Davis’ second cluster contains only 3 Hebrew letters. These letters are hey , vav, & zayin .
Hey — ה
The fifth Hebrew letter is Hey. It is pronounced the way it appears “hey” and sounds like the “h” in “hay”.
NOTE: Again I have seen this spelled two ways: (1) H-A-Y and (2) H-E-Y.
Vav — ו
The sixth Hebrew letter is Vav. It is pronounced “vahv” and sounds like “v” in “vine”
Zayin — ז
The seventh Hebrew letter is Zayin. It is pronounced “zah-yeen” and sounds like “z” in “zebra”
NOTE: Dr. Davis points out the similarity between the letters Vav ו and the Zayin ז. There are several letters that look the same. Keep a close eye for these letters.
Cluster #3
The third cluster, like the first, contains a total of 4 Hebrew letters. These letters are chet, tet, yod, & kaf
Chet — ח
The eighth Hebrew letter is chet. It rhythms with “mate” and it has a guttural sound like “ch” in “bach“
Notice the similarities of chet ח and Hey ה
Tet — ט
Tet is the ninth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. It too rhythms with “mate” and it has a sound that is like “t” in “tall”
Yod — י
Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew Alephbet. It too rhythms with “mode” and it has a sound that is like the “y” in “yes”
Kaf — כ / Khaf — כּ
Kaf is the eleventh letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. It has the sound of the “k” as in “kite”
Khaf has the guttural sound. Khaf can be written like a backwards “c” or a backwards block letter “c”. Either way is considered correct.
Kaf is the first of five letters that has a final form. ך The final form is called sofit pronounced as “so-feet”. All of the final form letters retain the normal letter sounds. In this case, it sounds like “k” in “kite”.
Hebrew Letters – Lamed to Tav
Don’t proceed until you have learned the first eleven letters. After a quick review Dr. Davis will continue with the lesson.
Cluster #4
The fourth cluster contains three Hebrew letters – lamed, mem, & nun.
Lamed — ל
The twelveth Hebrew letter is Lamed. It is pronounced as “lah-med” and it sounds like the “l” in “look”.
Mem — מ
The thirteenth Hebrew letter is Mem. Mem says “m” as in “mom”. This form of mem is considered an “open” mem.
Mem is the second of five letters with a final form. It will appear like this ם. It’s called a closed Mem because it looks like a box. Notice that is looks like Samech ס Unlike other final form letters it does not always appear at the end of a word – these are believed to have special meanings.
Nun — נ
The fourteenth letter is Nun and is pronounced as “noon”. Nun says “n” as in “now”.
Nun is the third of five final form letters. It will appear like thisן. Notice how final Nun looks similar to Vav ו
Cluster #5
The fifth cluster contains four Hebrew letters – samekh, ayin, pey, & tsade.
Samech — ס
The fifteenth Hebrew letter is pronounced “sah-mekh”. Samekh says “s” as in “son”.
Like chet it has a guttural sound like “ch” as in “bach“
NOTE: I’ve seen two spellings (1) S-A-M-E-C-H and (2) S-A-M-E-K-H
Ayin — ע
The sixteenth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet is silent. It is pronounced as “ah-yeen”. Although silent it normally associated with a vowel.
Pey — פּ / Fey — פ
Pey is the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. When it has the dagesh it will rhyme with “pay”. Pey says “p” as in “park”.
Fey says “f ” as in “fox” or “ph” as in “phone. This is used when verbally spelling a word that contains Pey without the dagesh.
Pey is the fourth of five final letters. In final form it sounds like pey. Notice that it final pey ף looks similar to fey פ
NOTE: I’ve seen three spellings for this word (1) P-E, (2) P-E-Y, and (3) P-A-Y. Dr. Davis uses the third spelling in the video.
Tsade — צ
This is the eighteenth letter of the Aleph-Bet. It is pronounced “tsah-dee”. Tsade says “ts” as in “nuts“.
The last of the final form letter appears like this ץ. Notice how similar the final form looks to the regular form צ.
Only four letters are left. Lets knock this last letters out.
Cluster #6
Dr. Davis’ 6th and final cluster contains the remaining four letters – qof, resh, shin, and tav
Qof — ק
The nineteenth Hebrew letter is Qof. It is pronounced as “kop”. Qof say “q” as in “queen”.
Resh — ר
The twentieth letter is resh. Resh is pronounced “raysh”. Resh says “r” as in “rain.
This is a guttural letter.
Shin — שׁ / Sin — שׂ
The twenty-first letter has two sounds depending on the location of the dot. If its located the upper right-hand side שׁ “Shin” says “sh” as in “shy” Also pronounced as “sheen“.
If the dot is located in the upper left-hand side שׂ. “Sin” says “s” as in “sun”.
Tav — ת
The twenty-second and last letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet is tav. Tav says “t” as in “tall”.
Congratulations you have successfully learned or reviewed the aleph-bet.
Resources
There are tons of resources for learning Hebrew. If you are serious about learning this wonderful language, I have listed a few resources below that I know that will certainly help you.
As an added measure, here is an excellent Hebrew lexicon. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament I just discovered this lexicon and I must say it seems much easiler to use than the BDB Lexicon that I have used in other posts.
Review and Conclusion
The Hebrew Alphabet is called the Aleph-Bet. It is named after the first two letters.
The Aleph-Bet contain 22 letters – 4 have gutturals sounds and 5 have final forms. Final forms are sometimes called “double forms”, in Hebrew they are called “sofit”-pronounced “so-feet”.
In my personal search to learn Hebrew, I found it very hard to locate a simple, quick and easy, bare-bones lesson that was not childish.
This is one of the reasons that I created this post.
I have also heard it said that you should review 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year after you have learned something. This post was an exercise of review for me.
Also, I want to thank all of the people that are helping me to learn this wonderful language. A shout-out to Izzy Avraham, John Parsons, Kevin Saitta, Derrick Leman, Sonia Hammonds, and Yoel Halevi.
I hope that you really enjoyed this lesson. Feel free to share this page with your friends who may be interested in learning Hebrew.
This Resource Page contains links that I personally used and some very valueable resources. Included on this page are download links, viewable online resources and links to other website that just contains ton of link of their own. Please note I can’t be held responsible of the format or content contained on the other sites. Also please be advise that some of the links on this page may connect to other religious website so please don’t be offended.
List of Abbreviations (on this Page) EN – English Translation HE – Hebrew Text
Extra-Biblical Materials
There are tons of extra-biblical writing both Jewish and Christian. This section is sub-divided for this reason; Jewish Writings, Church Fathers
Jewish Writings
These are perhaps the most important and the least studied by the Christian “church”. The Scriptures were given to the Nation of Israel. They are the “guardians of the Torah” it is through their writings that we can better understand the text of the Scriptures.
Dead Sea Scrolls
The greatest archeological find of the 20th Century is now online for your viewing. This is the official Dead Sea Scroll website by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Discover the history and the 1950 images of the scrolls themselves. Dead Sea Scrolls
Josephus
Josephus is an invaluable 1st Century source. He is one of the most important Jews to read and understand the days in which Yeshua lived and walked the earth. Viewable Online Files – En
Rabbinic Literature
Sefaria – Is perhaps one of the largest online resources of Jewish material both ancient and modern. I would encourage you to at least sign up and see the latest Scholarly articles. Sefaria
Rabbinics – There is a considerable amount of material listed on this site. Rabbinics.org
Babylonian Talmud – There are about 12,800 printed pages in the Soncino Talmud, not counting introductions, indexes, glossaries, etc. Of these, Come and Hear™ has put about 8050 pages on line, comprising about 1460 files — about 63% of the Soncino Talmud Viewable Online English Translation Downloadable English Translation
Jerusalem Talmud – Free – 12 Different ways (formats) to download the Talmud of Jerusalem. Midrash –
Church Fathers
The “Church Fathers” are the generational leadership which came after the death of Yeshua’s disciples. If you will they were Yeshua’s disciples (apostles) disciples. Many of these men where Gentiles that were grafted into Israel. Sadly many of them added various philosophical ideas and they systemically striped the Jewishness out of Scriptures. In other words they propagated antisemitism.
Bible Translations
Septuagint (LXX) – This is the Greek text of the TaNaK. It is maintained by Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Septuagint Online
Jewish Targums – Looking for sources.
Latin Vulgate – This is a online resource is a parallel of Douay-Rheims, Latin Vulgate, and King James all in one place. LatinVulgate.com
Web Links
The links currently in no specific order.
The Watchman – BetemunahBetemunah.org Link – Vast website containing the learning of Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)- FREE Resources
Hebrew 4 Christians – hebrew4christians.org – John Parsons website. I would describe it as a Christian website about all things Hebraic. Excellent resources for self-pace learning of Hebrew. – FREE Resources
Jewish Eyes – jewisheyes.org – Excellent Parchah Videos from Messianic(?) Jewish Rabbi. – FREEish & Paid Resources – Freeish because they require you to register with an email to watch the videos.
Nehemia Gordon’s Website – NehemiasWall.org Nehemia Gordon is a Karite Jew (Meaning he does not believe in the Rabbinical Writing although he comes from a linage of Pharisees.) FREE Resources – Podcasts of Torah Pearls & Prophet Pearls very causal recordings with him, Keith Johnson, and Jono Vandor. He was also taught NFL HOF’er Reggie White Hebrew.
Holy Language Institute – HolyLanguage.com – Izzy Avaham’s website designed to teach Hebrew. Now he has extended it to learn Modern Hebrew, Live Shabbat Services, and Messianic Rabbi Derek Leman trainings. – FREEish & Paid – Freeish as he only allows provides a certain amount of free material. FULL Disclosure: This is where I began my Hebrew studies. I have spoken to Izzy on the phone and we are FB friends.
Bible Basics
Bible Basics WHY? – This answer is simple.
My desire with this “study Bible” is to “bridge the gap between Israel and the grafted-in branches”. The Scriptures were given to the nation of Israel in the Hebrew tongue and throughout time they have been the G-d ordained people to practice it, guard it, preserve it, and teach it to the nations.
Beginning again..
I was a Christian pastor for roughly three years and in Christian ministry for more than 20 years. My former pastor said across the pulpit many times, “You must study the Bible with a Hebraic perspective.” That lead me to begin a new way of studying and understanding the Scriptures; I began by asking questions i.e. “What do the Jews teach about (insert topic, word, concept, idea)”. I discovered there was a major gap between Jewish teachings and what I thought I knew. I recall telling my wife many times, “If this is true, we are completely blowing it”. Once I decided to study Hebrew my mind began to be renewed in a way that is unexplainable. In my search, I’ve discovered a greater and deeper understanding and relationship with the Scriptures.
If you are a Christian reading this – here is my warning to you. Many things contained in this site will completely shock you but if you are willing and have a heart seeking for Father, He will reveal truth to you. If you are looking for answers about Hebraic thought, Jewish Teachings, and/or Biblical history you are in the right place.
Please Start Reading All of the Articles Posted Here. Each resource and article are extremely important! I can’t overemphasize the importance of learning and living these articles. Your new perceptive, I believe, will lead you to a greater relationship with Adonai, mankind, and the whole of creation.
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Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin Wilson is the one MUST have book. I always encourage people to purchase and read this book. This one had so many ah-ha moments for me. As I read it, especially the “I am not interested” parts, I was flooded. I kept telling my wife, “If this is true, we are messing up”. A good portion of the things I will share with you in the following articles has its origins from this book.
Bible Basic Questions:
Do you have questions? I make no promises, but I will do what I can to answer them to the best of my knowledge and ability.
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Upcoming Questions to be Answered:
These proposed articles will be written from my own search for truth and because of this they could be consider “living” articles. Revision and updating should be expected and instead of deleting previous statement I will strike-through any changes that are necessary. As a “living” progression here are some article ideas.
Understanding Jewish Literature – A discovery of all those pesky extra-biblical writings that you have been told not to read.
Jewish Understanding of Salvation –
Grace – A New Testament Idea! – Are you sure?
Understand Times, Seasons, & Cycles – Basic explanation of the calendar.
The Transmission of the Scriptures
Jewish Prayer
The Heart of Judaism
Jewish Image of Being Born Again
The Dangers of Replacement Theology
The 3 Important “T”s in Hebrew and how applies to the Christian
